Australasian Animal Studies Association
Eveline Kolijn Zoonotic Transmission, Reduction linocut on paper, 2020

ARTIST STATEMENT:

Domestication and Extinction
There is a lot of discussion among academics when the era of the Anthropocene began. One could argue that it germinated with the domestication of crops and animals, when humans started to consciously manipulate their surroundings approximately 10,000 years ago. Domestication of our plants and animals have certainly spurred human population growth on our planet, which has resulted in diminished ecosystems and extinction of species. A re-discovery in the Anthropocene is that ‘nature’ is not inanimate after all; it is animated. It reacts and moves in response to our actions, because we are part of it. However, our mainstream perceptions of conservation still tend to be very fragmented. As Anna Tsing observes: “Conservation biologists segregate nonhumans; political ecologists too often take them for granted as resources for human use. Instead, we might want to look at how species and populations slip in and out of markets, in and out of cultural attention, and in and out of a whole spectrum of not-yet-fully-described interactions between humans and nonhumans.”[Nixon, R ‘Slow Violence’, 2011 p.175]

In my Domestication and Extinction series, I want to examine the intricate, Anthropocenic interconnectedness of the actions of humans with our non-human environment through the hourglass lens of those two related themes.

Eveline Kolijn, Domestication and Extinction, Reduction linocut on paper, 2019

ARTIST:
Eveline Kolijn is a printmaker and installation artist living and working in Calgary. Growing up in the Caribbean, she has experienced both the beauty and demise of coral reefs. Eveline received a MA in cultural anthropology from the Leiden University in the Netherlands in 1986 and a BFA from the Alberta College of Art+ Design in 2008 including the Governor General’s Award for academic achievement. She has participated in national and international exhibitions and residencies, public art projects and community engagement. She has been published in various scientific publications. She is an instructor at the Alberta University of the Arts School of Continuing Education. In 2018, she joined the Energy Futures Lab as a Fellow and in 2019, she received the AUArts Alumni Legacy award.


VISIT  http://evelinekolijn.com/